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ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
S. S. Kresge Company
207 E Main St
1944
Montgomery Ward, Kresge’s and Penney’s
c.1956
205-207 E Main
1957 KRESGE’S PURCHASED THE SCHEMPF/MONTGOMERY
WARD BLDG.
08 07 
<
Artist’s sketch
Enlargement and alterations to be completed in
September. The remodeled and enlarged
Kresge’s will be more than double its original size and will expand the
merchandize assortments to include many nationally advertised items.
11 24 Modernization
and expansion of the S. S. Kresge Store at 207-213
Main Street is well under way and the first section is scheduled for
completion and opening on Friday, Nov. 29, it was announced by the store
manager, Floyd J. Cole. With the
acquisition this past summer of the building which once housed Watertown’s
largest department store, the Schempf Bros. Co., and
more recently was the Watertown outlet of Montgomery Ward and Co., the Kresges store here was more than doubled in size. The newly acquired building adjoins the
original Kresge store building in Main Street. The new store covers 11,145 square feet and
has a frontage of 111 feet. Completion
of the construction involved in the new store is scheduled for early next year
and is being handled by the Selzer-Ornst Company of
Milwaukee. WDT
1958
02 23 Officials and staff of the S.S. Kresge Company store in Watertown
made final preparations today for the grand opening of the newly enlarged store
in Main Street which will be held Thursday, Friday and
Saturday. The store, which is the city's
largest, completed its expansion program last autumn and has been in operation
since but the grand opening was delayed until this weekend. Announcement of the grand opening plans was
made by Floyd J. Cole, manager of the store.
WDT
c.1959
1959
03 04 A remodeling
program which included new decorating, new fixtures, enlarging departments and
increased office space has just been completed by the Watertown J. C. Penney Co. store.
A gain of 50 square feet of selling space was accomplished on the second
floor by moving the office to vacant space in the Kresge building. At the same time the maze of tubes
centering in the cashier's office were removed and replaced with cash
registers in each department. WDT
1966
09 19 MONTGOMERY
WARD CATALOG CENTER
The new Montgomery Ward catalog agency,
located at No. 10 Milwaukee Street, began a three-day grand opening today and
the public is invited to drop in and get acquainted with the many services it
offers. Lawrence Schwanke
is the owner and manager. The store
features many grand opening specials for immediate delivery. Mr. Schwanke said
he is happy to offer this service to the public of the Watertown shopping area
and invites the public to drop in and get acquainted. WDT
KRESGE’S
FIRE, 207 E Main
08 08 NEW MANAGER
Pat Kennedy has taken up his duties
here as manager of the S. S. Kresge Co. store, succeeding Leonard Sanders,
presently on leave of absence. Mr.
Kennedy arrived in the city from Lincoln, Neb., when he managed a downtown
store of Kresge’s for one and one-half years.
He has been with Kresge for 37 years, having served as manager in
Escanaba, Mich., or 15 years and in Ironwood, Mich., for two years before going
to Lincoln. WDT
1970
07 09 KRESGE
EMPLOYEE HONORED
Miss Fern Weber, who has been an employee of the S. S. Kresge Company in
Watertown for the past 21 years, was honored at a dinner held at the Legion
Green Bowl. Congratulations from the
store manager, Patrick Kennedy.
07 29 MAXWELL
STREET DAY
c.1970s
< Upper floors of Kresge's.
Part of an architectural display.
c.1975
c.1982
1983
04 16 KRESGE’S TO
CLOSE
The S. S. Kresge store, 207 Main
Street, a part of the downtown business community in Watertown for many years,
will close on July 2. Susan McKelvey, a
member of the corporate staff of K-Mart Corporation, owner of the Kresge
stores, said the decision to close the store was based on economic factors and
not because of the Watertown community.
She said the store has suffered losses in recent years, and the decision
to close the facility follows a corporate policy of discontinuing operations of
those which are not profitable. Many
Kresge stores in the country have been closed as K-Mart Corporation continues
to place more emphasis on its K-Mart and mini K-Mart
stores. Employees were told of the
decision to close earlier this week, and corporate officials said every effort
will be made to relocate employees in K-Mart stores in surrounding communities. WDT
Cross Reference Note:
In 1977, nearly 95 percent of S. S. Kresge Company sales were generated
by Kmart stores. To reflect this
dramatic impact, the company officially changed its name to Kmart
Corporation. Ten years later, Kmart sold
the remaining Kresge stores to fully concentrate on discount merchandising.
1983
06 21 KLINE'S MOVE INTO FORMER KRESGE’S
Kline's, which has operated a store in downtown
Watertown for 29 years, will move into the building now occupied by the S. S.
Kresge variety store in early fall, manager Ralph J. Adams announced
today. A major renovation project,
including a new front and completely redone interior, is planned. Kline's takes possession of the building at
207 East Main Street July 5 and will continue at its current location until the
renovation is complete. WDT
1984
05 05 KLINE'S MOVE INTO FORMER KRESGE’S
Grand opening of Kline’s, former Kresge
and J C Penney store locations WDT
Cross references:
Lunch counters. Ruth Sellnow,
longtime Watertown resident, has written a remembrance of growing up in
Watertown: Lunch counters, were once
great places, to eat in downtown Watertown.
The counter at Woolworths had club sandwiches., BLTs and a multi-layered
devil’s food cake with a white sea-foam frosting, that were all favorites. The Kresege store
counter survived even longer with the usual staples of lunch counter fare and
coffee. It brought people together for
food and conversation.
History of Watertown,
Wisconsin